American Airlines recently proposed a 17% pay increase for flight attendants, but workers say it won’t be enough to stop the first airline strike in 15 years.
As the airline and its employees negotiate, U.S. CEO Robert Isom sent a video message this week proposing a 17% pay hike, just enough to push new flight attendants in Boston and Miami over their food stamp eligibility.
The airline said the wage increase would take effect immediately and said it was “not asking for anything from the union in return,” an unusual move, Isom said in a video message that was confirmed by an American Airlines spokesman. “But these are unusual times.”
However, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) rejected the proposal, calling it a “PR stunt” ahead of strike talks between American Airlines and the union next week.
Inflation is rising, wages remain at the same level
APFA and American Airlines have been in periodic negotiations for a new contract since the previous one expired in 2019, APFA President Julie Hedrick said. Luck.
“We’re behind on everything,” Hedrick said. She named low wages and low payment for food expenses while traveling as the most pressing problems. When flight attendants are deployed on domestic flights, they receive an additional $2.20 per hour for meals; for international flights they receive $2.50. Those numbers are “very far behind” the actual cost of food today, Hendrick said.
Since the previous contract in 2014, flight attendants have been left with pitiful starting salaries even as inflation rose 33%, Hedrick said. According to an employment verification letter from American that was shared on Reddit a few weeks ago, the entry A mid-level flight attendant can expect to earn $27,315 per year before taxes. (Like many airlines, American pays its flight attendants only for their time plane in the airBoarding passengers, waiting between flights, and traveling to and from the airport all mean that flight attendants typically work about two hours for every paid “flight hour.”)
Taking into account the 17% increase proposed by the Americans, starting wages will jump to $31,959 per year, or $35.5 per flight hour. That rate pushes junior flight attendants who live alone above food stamp eligibility levels in states like Massachusetts or Florida.
Most new flight attendants have to live in cities like Dallas, Miami and New York, where the cost of living is high and they can’t afford it, Hedrick said.
According to her, American flight attendants sleep in their cars. Some of them fight to fly just for the chance to eat on-board food if the pilots don’t eat breakfast first.
“Our new flight attendants are struggling,” Hendrick said, adding that new hires most strongly rejected the 17% raise.
For these service workers, delayed wages add insult to injury when viewed against the backdrop of post-pandemic years that have exacerbated long-standing problems in the industry, including staff shortages, overtime and unruly passengers, some of whom attack on airline employees.
This is leading to record burnout among service workers.
18 months of pickets
“We picketed for a year and a half and did at least 11 pickets,” Hedrick said. “Our cabin crew have demonstrated our determination and our solidarity to get the contract, the industry meeting contract, that we deserve, and we will not settle for anything less.”
APFA is proposing a 33% increase — in line with inflation since 2014 — capped at $91 an hour for the first year of the new contract, with pay increases for each year thereafter.
This was announced by a representative of American Airlines. Luck that the video message “represents the latest news in America.” They did not answer questions about the proposal or upcoming negotiations.
Of the 39 individual issues under review, such as sick leave or crew rest, APFA and American have reached a “tentative agreement” on 25. The remaining 14 relate to compensation, expenses, vacations and other terms of the agreement.
100-year-old law could lead to a strike
Union leaders face an uphill battle as they head to Washington next week for talks. Airline strikes are extremely rare, with the most recent occurring in 2010. when Spirit Airlines pilots went on a five-day strike.
That’s because railroad and airline workers are not allowed to strike unless they get the green light from federal mediation groups under the 1926 Convention. Law on labor in railway transport. One such group, the National Mediation Council, will oversee American Airlines’ negotiations and could authorize a strike if it finds the groups are deadlocked. However, the federal government can also block a strike, as happened in December 2022 when President Joe Biden signed a measure passed by Congress to implement a contract between railroad companies and workers that many workers had rejected.
Biden, who has called himself the “most union president” in history, enforced the agreement to avoid an “economic disaster” during the holidays, he said at the time. With many major railroad companies facing industry-wide strikes, the stakes for the agreement were extremely high; For each day of strike, $2 billion could be lost.
The stakes for a possible hit to American are less dire because other major carriers won’t be affected.
But American service workers aren’t the only ones calling for higher wages. United Airlines we are still negotiating a new contract with its flight attendants. In April, Southwest Airlines approved a contract that includes pay increases totaling more than 33% over four years. The Transportation Workers Union, which represents Southwest flight attendants, said it provided record earnings for flight attendants and set an industry standard.
APFA is also asking for a 33% raise, with increases of 5%, 4% and 4% in the remaining years of the four-year agreement.
The union also said it would not accept any deal without retroactive payment. Last year, American Airlines paid pilots $230 million in retroactive pay after negotiations with the pilots’ union.
Hendrick’s message regarding the 17% increase appears to be that we want the whole package, not individual increases.
“Our flight attendants want nothing to do with this,” she said. “Yesterday they overwhelmingly said, ‘No, we need a contract.’ We’ve been negotiating long enough and it’s time to get this deal done.”